Elected fascism hunts down two innocent persons

Jun 17, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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On a television programme entitled, “Walter Rodney Groundings,” the host, Dion Abrahams, asked the question if there is a dictatorship in Guyana. I reminded Dion that I have gone beyond that typology and could and would argue with any intellectual that the Guyana dictatorship has extensive features of fascism.
In such a format, there wasn’t time to elaborate but I did make a distinction between old style authoritarianism and fascism. When you examine the difference you will see that the PPP Government and the Jagdeo presidency belong to the category of elected fascism.
Traditional authoritarianism is the type we saw under Burnham. Oligarchic or authoritarian government is not as penetrating as fascism. One of the essential differences is ubiquity.
Fascism’s crusading mission is to create a one-dimensional society (this fascist concept has to be separated from Herbert Marcuse’s understanding of one-dimensional society; perhaps a better terminology would be that of totalitarianism as adumbrated by Hannah Arendt).
Fascism’s essential methodology is to dominate every conceivable aspect of society – politics, economy, culture, aesthetics, social life, trade union movement, geographical distance etc.
Old style authoritarianism is preoccupied with the control of the state machinery. Once it has the state apparatus within its grip, it is satisfied that it has achieved hegemony.
The process of hegemony in old style authoritarianism operates differently than under fascism.
Power takes different shapes in the two systems. Under fascism, hegemony becomes an all-embracing action.
This is the fundamental distinction between the Burnham regime and the Jagdeo tyranny. I made the point to Dion Abraham on that programmme that under Burnham, huge parts of the Corentyne were conceded to the PPP. Port Mourant was virtually a PPP town. Burnham never sought to devastate GAWU.
Under the PPP cabal, the intention is to achieve totalitarian control over the society and the territory. Too many examples abound to be listed here.
There is a bogus union introduced in the public sector to weaken the GPSU. The TUC must be devastated.
The University of Guyana is not sufficiently sycophantic so it will be de-funded (its present budget was not increased). Here is where the story of the canter-truck driver and the mini-bus owner who featured in the recent demonstrations at Patentia over the police killing of 16-year-old Kelvin Fraser come in.
There is no territory in the geographical outlay that the PPP Government has not sought to bring under its aegis. Name a village that would have a long tradition of ethnic suspicion against the PPP and the PPP has a conspiratorial clique operating there with resources from the state to check any attempt at critical movement against the Government.
This arrangement is so methodical that it can be interpreted as being even more pronounced that in traditional fascist Europe in the first half of the 20th century. I saw this first hand at Patentia. As soon as the protest broke out, the NDC people along with party fascists began to threaten the villagers.
The canter-truck driver and the mini-bus owner had to be used as cruel examples because what they did was to threaten the existence of totalitarian control. The two vehicles transported more than seventy protestors to the city. This could serve as a catalyst for other villagers.
If fascist cruelty was meted out to these two vehicle owners then that would serve as a warning in the total geographical outlay. I am convinced that at Freedom House the order was transmitted to the police that the Canter truck owner must be tyrannized because what he did was to open the flood gates.
The intention was to take away his truck and return it months later when it would have been destroyed. In the case of the minibus owner, she has been ordered not to use her bus or it would be hauled in with overbearing frequency.
In the midst of this fascist attack on two innocent persons, a society that went through this autocratic use of power with tragic consequences stands by and watches helplessly as it awaits its next victim.
In every fascist society from Stalin to Hitler to Pinochet to the generals in Indonesia, Pakistan, Brazil, etc, there were defiant ones. In Guyana, we are yet to see our defiant ones.
This of course is not to overlook the work done by Mr. Robert Corbin to have the man’s truck returned and those hundreds of protestors who took to the road of Patentia to protest the killing.
In the meantime, we have to help the minibus owner. That bus is her only avenue of earning a living.

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